A Family Dilemma
by LadySonics
Summary: The world knows Matthew Potter as the BWL. But the Potter family knows a different story. James and Lily use logic early on and know that not everything is what it seems. Healthy and confident!Harry. Powerfull!Harry and Caring family.


**Thank you so much for spokojnyj for corrections. This third upload is edited completely. Any remaining mistakes are my own (or because of his bad influence).**

**I don't own Harry Potter. I'm not making any profit of this. This is my take with a twist of a wrong boy who lived story where Harry has a fraternal twin brother. **

**The HP time-line and technology is the same as the books so no smart phones and such and any actual mobile phone will require a backpack to carry as it was during the mid 1980s – any type of computer will probably be the ever popular Commodore Amiga. Not that I will probably have any of my characters actually carry any of that, it's just an idea of the feeling of the story. The dates and corresponding days should be historically correct. I do actually own a calendar and know which year is a leap year or not. **

**Chapter 1 **

**Potter Cottage**

**Godric's Hollow, Wales **

**Saturday October 31st 1981**

**9:45 p.m.**

The evening and night sky was surprisingly clear and the wind calm as Voldemort approached the cottage hidden with the Fidelius Charm in the historic village of Godric's Hollow. The Secret-Keeper, Peter Pettigrew, had given him the location of the house. Pettigrew was also his spy in the resistance against him, the Order of the Phoenix. He could feel the magic of two babies, Hadrian James Potter and Matheus Charlus Potter, though they were commonly known as Harry and Matthew Potter and, as he expected, no sign of their parents, James and Lily Potter. He had chosen this time because he knew there was an Order meeting that they would be attending.

Entering the house, he smiled and laughed with glee at how easy it was to get here. Raising his wand, he touched the tip of the wand to a skull type ring he was wearing. It took less than a second for him to mentally connect to the Dark Mark on his follower Peter. This action was to warn Peter that he would be striking now. Not that he really cared but he still needed Peter to spy on key Ministry workers – being a rat Animagus really made it easy to get into places.

He walked up the stairs and entered the nursery. He carefully noted a small alert charm monitoring the children; he would need to hurry. In one corner of the room stood two cribs, each with a fifteen-month-old baby. These would be the Potter twins. One boy appeared to have ginger-colored hair while the other had midnight-black hair. One was dangerous because one of them could destroy him. Unfortunately for them, he didn't know which one he would need to kill so they both had to die. To his left, the dark-haired baby had woken up. For a moment he was startled as the child's piercing green eyes stared intensely back at him.

"Such young precious wizarding talent. But you're both going to have to die, for I, Lord Voldemort, cannot have anyone whose power might possibly defeat mine. I will kill you tonight and end this supposed prophecy as if anyone could beat me. You first, curious one. Die!" He pointed his wand at the awake child.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" he yelled.

The green light of the Killing Curse emerged from his wand shooting towards the dark-haired child. He noted it striking the baby in the forehead causing the baby to jerk and cry in pain. For a fraction of a second he was worried, for the Killing Curse doesn't bring pain, only instant death. In that moment he knew something was wrong and he attempted to move but it was already too late. Somehow the curse rebounded back at him and in the next moment he knew nothing but intense pain as he felt his body incinerate.

A wisp of sentient black smoke rose up from the tattered robe, disoriented and unaware of a tadpole-sized piece that shot into the newly formed cut on the dark-haired boy's forehead.

The room didn't get away unscathed either. The Dark Lord's explosive incineration caused half of the ceiling to come down, together with a big part of the walls on his side of the room. Part of the roof of the attic above soon followed.

The black-haired green-eyed boy with the newly minted, lightning bolt shaped cut passed out in exhaustion while Voldemort's specter fled the house through the new sunroof. The other boy was screaming in pain after being awoken by the falling debris and receiving a v-shaped cut on the forehead. Both boys' bloody head wounds attracted enough Death magic saturating the air that they would become scars they would have forever.

A moment later, Lily rushed into the nursery, followed a few seconds later by her husband James along with their friends Sirius Black and Albus Dumbledore.

**OOooOO**

**Moody Manor**

**Unplottable location in Essex, England**

**Order of the Phoenix Headquarters**

**Meeting 9:45 p.m.**

Two dozen wizards and witches of various ages were gathered in what was once an imposing ballroom. Most were standing alone or in small groups of two or three.

Standing in the right back corner were four of the youngest among them, James and Lily Potter along with their longtime friends Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew.

Another friend of theirs, Remus Lupin, was somewhere up north on a mission to gather intel and hopefully gain support from the werewolf packs.

Their slightly older friends Frank and Alice Longbottom were quietly talking among themselves in the opposite corner.

In the front was their leader Albus Dumbledore, one of the greatest wizards of the modern era and defeater of the Dark Lord Grindelwald. Dumbledore had arrived late after hosting the annual Halloween feast at Hogwarts and was quietly discussing the latest events of the war with Alastor Moody, an Auror with legendary status and skills known across Europe.

This was the group that made up the Order of the Phoenix. All were tired, each wary and looking around in suspicion. They had a reason for distrust. A year and a half ago, the group had been easily three times as big. While losses were inevitable, too many were lost in sudden Death Eater ambushes and ruined Order missions. They had had too many close calls and there had been too many suspicious deaths and disappearances for it to simply be coincidence. It was clear that Voldemort had a spy in the Order.

The Bones, the McKinnons, the Prewitt twins and recently Benjy Fenwick, the past few months had been especially bloody and the loss of so many good fighters and friends was heartbreaking. The morale of the group was at an all time low. They were slowly losing the war.

A small part of the losses was caused by several members, mainly Muggle-borns, leaving the Order in the past few meetings. They had given an ultimatum: either everyone takes an Unbreakable Vow proclaiming loyalty to the Order and against Voldemort, or they would leave.

Of course Moody was all for it, but Dumbledore was strongly against, arguing that one oath can easily lead to twenty different oaths over the littlest things. It also didn't end at the risk of wizards losing their magic or dying. The oath would be felt at all times and could cause a great strain on some wizards. For some it could become too difficult to fight and concentrate while under the Unbreakable Vow.

Though Moody and his camp considered that an acceptable loss of manpower to root out the problem, they were outvoted and many of them left.

James and Lily were split on the decision. One, being a pure-blood wizard, was raised with horror stories of the oath and was taught that one does not take an Unbreakable Vow lightly, only as a last resort. He was raised to be noble and to trust a man's word and honor, and that they were carried over by magic into the next generation.

Lily, on the other hand, was a Muggle-born witch and all for the oath if it would protect their cause and therefore their family. She believed, like Moody, that the Order had to be willing to take the risk of the oath, not just for their peace of mind but to finally move past its current stagnation. She was raised on logic and knew it was genetics and DNA that actually made wizards have magic, not one's honor or as a reward for being a "superior race" to quote the majority of pure-bloods.

Sirius surprisingly was on Lily's side. Sirius didn't need to be a gifted psychic or empathetic to notice that with his family history he was the number one suspect as the spy. He understood that an oath was needed both to boost morale and bring relief to those still alive. Sirius, while normally a mover type who rushed into things without always thinking of the consequences, was especially adamant that this needed to be done. Peter, raised by a small quiet pure-blood family, was simply on James' side.

"We should leave. The night seems too calm. I just don't feel right," Lily spoke up barely above a whisper from James' side. Her beautiful long dark auburn-colored hair didn't have its usual wavy pattern but seemed frizzled, a sign of the great stress she was under.

"Come on Lils, the kids are fine. The wards around the nursery will pick up anything out of place," James tried to assure his wife using his nickname for her. He too was under great stress. He had bags under his eyes and, while his short black hair stayed its messy self no matter what, his stature was wary and his shoulders tense.

"She's right. It's too calm and the meeting is going nowhere," Peter voiced from behind the young couple.

James glanced back and could tell Peter didn't look too well. The shorter, stockier man smiled nervously. Peter had always been the nervous timid type but he was still a Gryffindor through and through but usually he had to be dragged to these meetings. Peter, while not as athletic or skilled as James or Sirius, was very good at coming up with alternate or off-the-wall options. His strength was organizing things as long as someone else took care of the heavy research. Lately, with the Order bring stagnant in trying to get past this problem, Peter wasn't really needed as much and often left early.

"Already? We've only been here half an hour," James said raising an eyebrow.

Peter just shrugged his shoulders as he looked back at his best friend.

"That..." he made a lazy gesture pointing his thumb at the front of the room at Dumbledore and Moody still talking quietly. He let out a sigh and continued, "...is going to be a long night. And I'm hungry. Not to mention I have to use the loo..."

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind you or us leaving," Lily interrupted.

"Right. I'm heading out then," Peter said as he pulled out his old Gryffindor scarf.

"You want to come? Dinner at the Leaky Cauldron on me?" Peter asked, turning around with a last glance at the other three.

"I have a late-night date. Remember Lisa Wakefield? Blonde. First in our year to develop..." Sirius answered with a doggish grin on his face.

James always wondered how Sirius had the energy for his many dates when he too was on the same heavy Auror training regiment.

Lily just shook her head used to Sirius' antics.

"No...go on ahead," James declined as well.

James felt bad turning the invitation down. Peter had been trying for a while already to get a get-together with the Marauders for old times' sake. James and Sirius went straight into Auror training after Hogwarts and just didn't have the time. In the two and a half years that they were out of school, they had managed to get together only a couple of times outside of Order meetings, and that was really only the first year. There hadn't been a night out since the twins were born.

Peter nodded in understanding and waved goodbye. He left quickly.

"He is right. This meeting is going nowhere. We should leave as well." Lily had that look in her eye again. She was worried about the boys being alone.

They had had this argument many times before. James, being raised magical, didn't have a problem trusting magic and monitoring charms to keep his sons safe. He had every charm and ward imaginable around the nursery. Anti-suffocating and anti-climbing wards, heck, the boys couldn't even roll over in their cribs without them knowing about it! And they could Apparate and be home within a matter of minutes.

Lily on the other hand was raised in a society where one did not leave young children – especially near-toddlers – by themselves ever.

Very few couples in the Order actually had children. Arthur had a bunch of kids but his wife Molly wasn't really in the Order so she watched their kids. Then there were Frank and Alice with young Neville who was the same age as Harry and Matthew. Frank's mother usually watched him but they didn't really have a problem with using charms.

James simply didn't have a choice. His twins were to young to travel by magical means. To apparate, floo, or port-key with any child under the age of three was illegal as children could be seriously and permanently injured by the intense jerking that the traveling does. Lily had noted that in the Muggle world, the illness was called Shaken Baby Syndrome. He and his family were simply the last Potters. His parents Charlus and Dorea Potter were killed by Voldemort near the end of his sixth year at Hogwarts. Lily's parents passed away in a car accident a year after that.

James' parents' death was a wake-up call for him. He usually only had studied Charms, Potions and Transfiguration to research spells and potions to use in his pranks – and he and his friends had pulled a lot of pranks. They were lucky that much of the material they studied was the same material they had to perform on their OWLS and NEWTS. It was only after his parents' death that he dove into his studies instead of spending all of his time on Quidditch and pranks. He was a smart boy and surprised many when he made Head Boy easily.

Lily, who didn't even like him very much at that point, had seen him start to emotionally close off. She had listened and helped him through the pain. It was after he opened up to her on his fears and dreams that they had started dating, to eventually marry right out of Hogwarts. When her parents died a few weeks after the wedding, he helped her through it in his turn.

He was damn glad to have her and his sons and very grateful for his friends. He prayed every day that his sons would never have to go through a war like this. He hoped his sons would be able to choose the life they'd want.

Unfortunately, there was a Prophecy. One that either focused on his kids or Frank and Alice's boy. A prophecy that said one of the three would be able to defeat the Dark Lord. Both couples only knew the first few lines.

_"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies."_

James didn't really know what to think. He knew Frank didn't know either. He didn't even know if he wanted to believe in the prophecy. If it was true, it could be twenty years for the war to be over – after all, the boys were only just babies.

This war had already been going on for eleven years, and in the last few years the wizarding world was spiraling down fast. Diagon Alley was all but deserted. People were disappearing every single day. Part of him hoped that they just spontaneously left the Isles for good. He didn't know if they were going to last another two years, let alone the next twenty. But Albus Dumbledore believed in the prophecy of all things and believed that Voldemort believed in it as well.

Both families were advised by Albus to go into hiding. Albus had powered and cast the Fidelius Charm – a charm that took a great amount of power to cast. It allowed the location of a property and everything in it to be hidden inside the mind of one person, the Secret-Keeper, who was the only one who could give out the location.

The property would be shifted to a dimension out of phase with the home dimension, with the Secret-Keeper as anchor. Thus the property would be protected against anyone not in the know and against any outside force. A comet could fall and it wouldn't affect a Fidelius-protected property because it simply "wasn't there".

It was a wonderful piece of magic but it had one drawback: the Secret-Keeper couldn't live at the location. As the anchor, they simply couldn't be in the Fidelius location for longer than one hour a day. Any longer in the location and the protection breaks and the property would simply bounce back into the home dimension.

Originally they had used Sirius and he did a great job in the last year, but the stress had been hard on him. Not only had Sirius had to change homes several times during this period, but he had missed his godchildren and had hated not being able to visit. It was Sirius who suggested a change to Peter. To make a perfect bluff he would still change homes periodically to throw the Dark Lord off, but now he would at least be able to visit his friends and godchildren more often.

They hadn't wanted to ask Dumbledore to throw up another one. Casting the charm twice between their and the Longbottoms' place had required a month rest in between. But thanks to Lily, they hadn't needed to bother Dumbledore. It had taken her over a month to figure out how to transfer the Secret from one person to another without breaking the charm while keeping everyone in the know the same. Peter had been the Secret-Keeper for almost a month now and everything was still good so far. The bluff was still strong.

Now they were all here. It was fifteen minutes to ten on what should be a festive holiday. Stuck in another Order meeting that had little direction in a war that had no end in sight.

"We'll give it another fifteen minutes," James said while taking his wife's left hand. "I promise."

Festive holiday Saturday that it was, he was in Auror training for twelve hours starting at five a.m. Every day. With the war, he got four days off in a thirty two day period. The Auror trainees had to work seven days straight to earn a day off. But they did get paid more than average.

And once they completed and passed the exams at the end of their three year training they not only got to be fully qualified Aurors that worked only five days a week with great pay, but they also received a Mastery in Defense. Earning any type of mastery in three years was an unbelievable achievement.

James and Sirius were part of a group of six trainees who had their rest day. Forty six in all were in the program with different rotating shifts.

Once they completed the training, they were required to work five years for the ministry. After the five years were up, some chose to stay and move up in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and some left for other employment opportunities, like researching new spells or writing books about their experiences or on Defense Against the Dark Arts.

James was currently undecided if he wanted to make a career working in the ministry. His sense of duty would see him fighting for as long as Aurors were needed for the war, but, like most battle-hardened men eventually, he had dreams past the fighting.

He was good at creating spells and jokes. And he knew that private establishments like Gringotts Bank fought to hire the best Aurors for their various job sites around the world. He would love to see the world and give his children the adventure of experiencing other cultures.

But at the moment, he couldn't wait to see his boys and go to bed and spend tomorrow with just his family.

James thoughts were interrupted by the Potter family ring on his right hand warming up. His entire body seemed to freeze except his finger. A magical pulse from the ring triggered an image of Voldemort in the nursery! His blood ran cold.

Lily felt it too.

"MY BABIES," Lily screamed as she rushed for the exit.

And just like that the entire room went quiet. In an instant, his blood heated up like an Auror going into battle as he started making his way out.

"Voldemort's in our house right now," he shouted, following Lily towards the door. he glanced back at his trainee partner Sirius who appeared frozen in shock.

_Oh shit_.

It took James a moment to connect the dots. It was Peter who gave the location out. And he had only been gone for about a minute. He obviously told Voldemort long before this meeting. Part of him was numb from finding out his friend was a traitor. But what else could it be? Peter was healthy. He hadn't appeared tortured or had shown no signs of being Obliviated or being under the Imperius Curse. Realistically he knew that Voldemort didn't simply Obliviate an enemy, he either killed them or used them with the Imperius. Peter must be the spy.

"Sirius is not our Secret-Keeper. We switched to Peter. He must be the spy!" James was in full Auror mode now. He wanted to get the facts out. Information was key. And with Voldemort in his home, now was not the time to withhold vital secrets of their bluff. He didn't want the Order to Stun and arrest Sirius or worse. He knew the whole room behind him heard this and would follow protocol. He would have to worry about Peter later. He needed to get to his sons.

Too rushed to look back, Lily currently had a five-second lead and was already outside, just about to Disapparate. The ballroom was connected to the entryway of the manor so it was a short run to the door. The grounds outside were a few hundred acres big. Thankfully, Moody had placed a small Apparition point on the second from last step down. It was the only place on the entire estate where you could currently get through the Anti-Apparition wards. However, Moody changed his Apparition point frequently. Constant Vigilance is his motto.

Using the step, James Disapparated after his wife to his cottage home, only to see a half-destroyed house. Part of the roof was clearly collapsed or simply blown off. He felt empty inside from the thought of his boys gone but forced himself to push through grief. He made it in record time inside the house and up the still intact stairway to the nursery, slowly imagining hearing cries.

Wait. Crying? He wasn't imagining it. He was hearing it. With a spark of hope, his wand out, James entered about two seconds after Lily, with Sirius and Albus following.

Lily immediately went to pick up and comfort a screaming Matthew. She was crying softly with him. James checked Harry picking him up. He was breathing. In his arms Harry started to stir awake but was failing, struggling to move his tiny arms and legs,

James was puzzled and looked back at Sirius and Dumbledore in confusion.

"I don't understand. He _was_ here. I saw him through my link with the wards," James' voice was barely above a whisper as he was trying to make sense of what had happened.

Sirius was wide-eyed, pointing at the yew wand and the tattered remains of custom silk battle robes on the floor. He had a flabbergasted look on his face.

James had seen that wand and those robes often enough to know who they belonged to.

"Let me check them," Dumbledore said. He waved his wand over the v-shaped cut of Matthew first then Harry.

"They are both going to be okay and will recover with rest."

James released the breath he didn't know he had been holding. "Oh, thank Merlin!"

Beside him Lily cried in relief as she looked over both her sons. Matthew was starting to quiet down in her arms.

"The room is laced with the potent aftereffects of the Killing Curse," Dumbledore stated as he continued.

The other three in the room gasped in shock at the mention of that curse.

Realistically James knew that Voldemort would use that curse but to feel it in his own home was what shocked him.

"The strongest quantity remaining is there," Dumbledore pointed to the robes on the floor.

"And there is a strong residue on both boys," Dumbledore seemed to age a decade as he admitted this.

He picked up Voldemort's wand and Prior Incantato sure enough showed the Killing Curse as the last spell cast.

"He attempted the Killing Curse on one of the boys and somehow the curse backfired. Somehow, when it backfired, it became much more potent. The spell incinerated him instead of leaving an unmarred body behind. But only the body was destroyed, he isn't dead as I can tell that a sentient wraith-like being rose up and fled the house," Dumbledore pointed to the now open night sky above. "It's remarkable. But which boy was it?" he concluded in wonder.

"What do you mean?" James asked. He looked down at Harry in his arms who was still struggling to stay awake. He knew it wasn't normal for his firstborn son to be this exhausted. Looking over at Matthew in Lily's arms who had finally fallen back to a normal sleep, he saw that they both had cuts on their foreheads.

Dumbledore must have seen the look because he answered "They are both covered in the potent aftereffects of the Killing Curse and those large cuts will probably leave a scar forever because of it. However, only one of them can truly be the child of the prophecy."

"Wait! What do you mean only one of them? They both have cuts! They both survived this encounter with Voldemort!" Sirius was finally getting over his shock. James was thankful for his friend taking the lead for a moment. The whole night was just confusing.

"Yes that's true, but they can't be both the prophesied child. After all, only one Killing Curse was used. And only one boy in singular is mentioned in the prophecy..." Dumbledore trailed off as he traced a finger around Matthew's v-shaped wound. He continued, "...The prophecy mentions that Voldemort would mark one as his equal. And this was clearly marked by Voldemort."

"Matthew is the one the prophecy spoke of, the one destined to defeat him. He is the one who survived the Killing Curse, the Boy Who Lived. It's truly remarkable. Matthew has probably bought us decades until he can defeat Voldemort for good," Dumbledore exclaimed.

"All hail, Matthew Potter, the Boy Who Lived!" he proclaimed raising Matthew above his head.

James frowned. He didn't like Dumbledore's expression. He also wasn't so sure about Dumbledore's conclusion as he looked down at Harry. He knew both his sons as only a parent could and knew that Harry was suffering from a little more than a cut on his forehead. He wasn't sure about the whole prophecy altogether and knew that most prophecies only really made sense once they were fulfilled. He wasn't even aware that Voldemort would _mark_ the one it spoke of until just now. And still he somehow doubted that Dumbledore would give up any more of the prophecy..

He glanced over at his wife and it appeared she had reached the same conclusion he had. Whichever boy it was, they both would need to be prepared.

End of Chapter 1.

**AN: The twist is everyone in the wizarding world will proclaim Matthew as the Boy ****W****ho ****L****ived. I wanted to get a detailed point of view out from one or both of the Potter****s****. Maybe I will do Lily next.****I'm going to go to sleep and hopefully get started on the next chapter tomorrow and out within a week. I'm not going to make the Potter****s**** bad parents. Only the Potters and their close pocket of friends will know that not everything is as it seems. They might even disappear and travel around the world. **

**Peter aka Wormtail has been a spy for at least a year and a half. I hope I made his retreat convincing enough. He knows the Marauders' behavior well enough to know they would turn down his dinner invitation. Obviously, Wormtail gets away for now and disappears to who knows where.**

**I'm struggling to keep this in third person but may periodically move into first person format.**

**Anyway, let me know what you think – L Sonics.**


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